Revenge is a dish best served bold. Leicester were coming off the back of their heaviest defeat in the Champions Cup, 38-0 at Thomond Park, but they had lost one of their previous 33 matches in the tournament here. In 20 seasons of European competition, six teams had won at the home of the Tigers.
Just one of those had done so twice, Munster, and with 90 seconds remaining they looked like making it three, two points ahead and in possession at the end of a rugged, tense encounter that was fuelled by desire.
Leicester had been pulverised at the breakdown last week and overpowered everywhere, with first their discipline and then their resolve breaking.
On Monday, their director of rugby, Richard Cockerill, had asked the players to write down one word to describe the performance. Most answers began with ‘s’, but here it was about sinew, stubbornness and strength, and also a little stupidity, with Manu Tuilagi receiving his second yellow card in a week for reckless play.
Weak a week ago, they were powerful here. Munster’s No8, CJ Stander, was the man of the match in Limerick for his Herculean display, but he conceded the penalty that decided the match 90 seconds from time, caught in possession just inside the Leicester half and penalised for holding on to give Owen Williams the chance to win the match from 52 metres.
Williams, who had kicked one penalty in the previous seven weeks, with Freddie Burns given the duties, had landed five out of five as Leicester recovered from an early six-point deficit. They were 12-9 up when the Munster full-back, Simon Zebo, was sent to the sin-bin after the television match official, Eric Gauzins, succeeded in persuading the referee, Pascal Gaüzère, that he was wrong in ruling that the full-back’s challenge on Adam Thompstone, who had picked up a loose ball near his own line and kicked into Munster’s 22, was not late.
Gaüzère not only awarded a penalty, but sent Zebo to the sin-bin. Williams’s kick put Leicester six points ahead, but Munster found the energy to create the only try of the match, using a lineout and a series of drives to provide the hooker, Niall Scannell, with the room to score. Tyler Bleyendaal slipped while taking the conversion, but the ball had just enough to go over the bar and put the visitors a point ahead.
There had been speculation that Cockerill’s job would be on the line if Leicester lost and if the Tigers have been inconsistent in the past two seasons – at their most menacing when reacting to a bad defeat – they have his bloody-mindedness and deserved the victory for the sheer force of their collective personality and defiance.
They will need more to make an impact this season, in the Premiership rather than Europe, where, although still being alive in their group, their failure to secure a bonus point yet looks like costing them.
This match, though, was about the moment rather than the future, a game to be won, a reputation to be salvaged and when Tuilagi bounced off Keith Earls in the opening minute, and Ben Youngs then counter-rucked to win a turnover, there was going to be no repeat of a lack of impact.
Munster seemed to have dowsed the early fire when Bleyendaal converted penalties, conceded by George Worth and a fired-up home captain, Tom Youngs, into points. For all their purpose, Leicester were slipshod in possession, coming alive only when Tuilagi was sent to the sin-bin again. At Thomond Park, he saw yellow for entering a ruck with a swinging arm and here he was in trouble for tackling his opposite number, Rory Scannell, late, marginally, and without using his arms.
Leicester played their best rugby of the half without him. Luke Hamilton’s offload freed Ellis Genge and the prop stormed his way into the Munster 22. Peter O’Mahony killed the ball at a subsequent ruck and gave away a second penalty at the breakdown, six minutes later, for Williams to level the scores just before Tuilagi returned.
Bleyendaal should have given Munster the half-time lead when the Leicester centre Jack Roberts kicked the ball dead thinking time was up, only for two seconds to remain. Munster used the lineout to win a penalty, but the fly-half was off target for the second time, misses that were ultimately to prove decisive.
He did regain the lead for his side four minutes after the break when Brendon O’Connor played the ball on the floor in the act of going off his feet, but Leicester were getting on top in the set pieces and the breakdown, winning refereeing decisions as a consequence.
Munster conceded penalties as wilfully as Leicester had in Limerick and Williams never looked like missing as the match became an old-fashioned trial of strength and nerve; retribution came in the shape of his right boot.
“I do not know how much time I have here, you will have to ask the chairman,” said Cockerill, when asked if he felt the victory had saved his job. “This win doesn’t change anything. It is not all fixed because we won a game with a kick from 50 metres; we still have a lot of work to do.”
Leicester Worth (Thacker 77); Betham (Brady 72), Roberts, Tuilagi, Thompstone; O Williams, B Youngs; Genge (Mulipola 60), T Youngs (capt), Cilliers (Bateman 50), Slater, Kitchener (Fitzgerald 50), Hamilton, O’Connor, McCaffrey (M Williams 60). Sin-bin Tuilagi 28, T Youngs 75 Pens O Williams 6
Munster Zebo; Sweetnam, Taute, Scannell, Earls (Conway 69); Bleynendaal, Murray (Williams 72); Kilcoyne (Cronin 50), Scannell, J Ryan (Archer 74), D Ryan, Holland (Kleyn 50), O’Mahony (capt), O’Donnell (O’Donoghue 62), Stander Try N Scannell Con Bleyendaal Pens Bleyendaal 3.
Sin-bin Zebo 65.
Welford Road 24,213
Game rating 7/10 Referee Pascal Gauzere (Fr)
